It had been two years. Two long years since the forces of good, those souls making interesting and vital music, had been forced to evacuate the Philippine Islands. The evacuation had been necessary in the face of the unrelenting onslaught brought down upon the islands by the invaders, those evil entities creating mindless drivel in the form of music subsidized by Unclear Channel and Nonvitalcom. Before I was forced to leave I made a promise to the loyal listeners in the Philippines. I promised to return and liberate their ears, and I keep my promises.
Right now I’m standing in the rear of an amphibious landing craft making its way towards Leyte. Outside of the crewmen steering and monitoring the LCP the only other passengers are the three young men who make up War Dogs of the Pacific. Although they may look inexperienced, these men are grizzled veterans of their own island basement hopping campaign. When I heard their music, I knew immediately that they were just the band I needed. At the conclusion of their show, I approached and recruited them into my sonic warrior brigade.
For three days prior to the planned landing my air forces had been dropping thousands of musical care packages into every populated area of the island. Inside these packages were copies of War Dogs of the Pacific’s new album Publish or Perish. My strategy was to expose as many people as possible to the sounds of this band. This in turn would break the populace out of their musical stupor and lead to mass discontent. To channel those feelings I included one other item inside those care packages, a flyer announcing the band would be playing a free concert on the beach near the town of Palo on this date and time.
In an unbelievable bit of logistical magic, all of my landing craft hit the beach at exactly the same time. I could see the seething mass of humanity expectantly waiting for us on the beach. The front ramps on all the craft were lowered into the waiting surf, and with a determined battle cry my men sprung into action. Five minutes was all it took to assemble an elevated stage and get the band’s equipment up and in working order. My main engineer gave me the thumbs up, and I let the band know it was show time. They each gave me a feral grin and went to work.
War Dogs of the Pacific refer to themselves as a pop punk/post-hardcore band, and who am I to argue? Due to my unfamiliarity with the bands name dropped as important influences to their sound, I’m just going to jump right into the things I like about this group. I certainly love the fact that their album begins with some serious musical subterfuge. The first song, “People Are Gonna Get Hurt”, begins with a plaintive bass line that is joined by a rather delicate guitar melody. It’s very disarming and guarantees the casual listener will be caught completely off guard when the drums and distortion effects explode into the song around the thirty second mark. From that point on the song transitions into a full blown rocker until the entire band’s ammunition is spent.
Another aspect that I particularly like about War Dogs of the Pacific is that they sound like a bigger band than they are in reality. Now don’t misunderstand, I’m not referring to studio trickery employed to confuse the listener. Not at all. The guitar, bass, and drums are easily delineated upon an even remotely close inspection. No, some bands just produce a sound that can only be described as massive when played back. War Dogs of the Pacific, in my opinion, is one of those bands. Trust me when I say these three men know how to make quite a ruckus!
Vocal duties are split between the bass player and guitarist. While the bass player (Joshua Charles Boardman) takes more of the burden than the guitarist (Martin Erroll Slomka), both are important to the overall sound. This is where the post-hardcore influences appear easily in my mind. Several times across the album I get a definite Fugazi vibe from the dual vocals, and that is certainly not a bad thing! Honestly however, I can see someone listening to this music and not caring for the vocals due to their gruff nature. Respectfully, I think this type of person is an idiot as it is that very gruff nature which makes the vocals so ingratiating to me in the first place. The tonality fits perfectly with the music, and there is no lack of memorable vocal lines all throughout the album.
Outside of the tremendous first track there are a couple of other standout songs, although in truth not one of the eight compositions on offer fails to impress. “Playing to a Click” features non-stop furious riffing and a fantastic chorus that keep the heads bobbing and weaving and the fans singing along. “Anchors Away” blasts out of the gate, but then gradually devolves into near silence before rapidly building back up to a distortion filled eruption. The finale of the album, “Bridgeburner”, is epic. That’s all I can really say. It is an epic, wonderful ride!
After the band had finished their set, I took the stage myself to deliver a few words I had prepared for the occasion. “People of the Philippines: I have returned. By the grace of the Almighty Ripple Effect quality artists are heard again on Philippine soil – soil consecrated in the good taste of our two peoples. We have come dedicated and committed to the task of destroying every vestige of enemy control over your daily listening habits, and of restoring upon a foundation of indescribable strength, the musical liberties of your people.”
Exit, stage left, to roars of applause.
--Penfold
The Band has made the entire album posted at www.wardogsofthepacific.bandcamp.com for free digital download